Last night I went to the cosy little bookshop Books on the Heath in King's Heath, Birmingham. Marc Burrows was speaking about his new book Mistletoe and Vinyl - The story of the Christmas No. 1.
I've been getting Marc's newsletter since 2019. The Twitter algorithm served up a tweet in which he said he was writing a book about Terry Pratchett, one of my favourite authors, and of course I subscribed. He's been touring various bookshops, libraries etc. talking about this new book. He spoke for almost an hour, off the cuff, entertaining and engaging.
The importance of being a number one at Christmas for an artist is a uniquely British phenomenon. He took us back to when Jesus' birth celebration was moved to the 25 December in 336, during the reign of Emperor Constantine. This was so that it was the same time as the cultures around were celebrating some sort of festival in the depths of winter. Singing and drinking are a part of all these celebrations. Fast forward to 1971 when John Lennon released a Christmas song (Happy Xmas - War is Over) when no cool artists were doing such a thing. He went to number four. So next year... well it's worth buying the book to find out how it became a thing.
He took us through the five food groups of Christmas songs, and what it takes to have a number one. With the Spotify algorithm deciding what we listen to the Christmas chart is now mostly old songs, so the importance of being number one is pretty much over these days, so a good time to write it up. The Christmas number one is also a part of the national life and what's going on - from the winter of discontent to the rise of social media influencers and this is covered in the book too.
I'd recommend hearing him talk about the book if you like music and/or comedy, but unfortunately there's just one date left: 18/12/2025 in London, but you do get the live band too. He's doing his Edinburgh Fringe show about Britpop in March and April next year, so that's going to be good.
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